Am I the only idiot who is paying their fines?

I mean, in the spirit of absolute transparency I feel like I should clarify, by ‘fines’ I actually mean one, and by ‘should I pay?’, I mean of course I will, but I feel like I first need a moment to vent.

This is the first parking fine I can remember receiving.

I know, it appears I might be a bit of an anomaly: it could be my love of walking or the fact that I’m a stickler for rules, but I just haven’t racked up any.

In fact, I used to sit aghast when my uni student mates would quite proudly open their glove boxes only to have an avalanche of unpaid paper tickets fall out on my feet.

They were the same ones who nearly keeled over when I first moved to Adelaide twenty-something years ago and rang home to tell them that our parking fines were so cheap.

Most of them were minus their first-borns courtesy of having to pay their expiations with their common response being: “It’s no wonder people just risk it, because the fine’s almost cheaper than paying for parking!’

But still … I couldn’t bring myself to their devil-may-care attitude.

(I know what you’re thinking, ‘Gosh she’d be fun to sit next to at a dinner party!’)

So, it’s fair to say what happened the other day was a personal irregularity. While I won’t bore you with all of the details, the facts were I didn’t even see the sign as I was in a hurry to drop the kids off to a school holiday activity and I was suckered in because there were a heap of parks available in this particular suburban street.

I walked in, handed over three kids and quicker than I could tie on an apron to the littlest one and get back outside, a parking officer had pinged me for my stationary four minutes.

It hadn’t even occurred to me that there would be a need for paid parking thanks to the row of empty parks but as I pulled out, there it was … the red plastic sleeve of despair wrapped around my windscreen wiper.

Of course, I didn’t notice it half-tucked under my hood until I was already moving, so I then had the humiliation of driving around feeling like I was sporting a giant neon sign saying ‘look at this law-breaking dolt, she should be taken to the firing squad!’

Does it seem that there are more and more people who aren’t being as civic-minded?

To be fair, when I finally got home and realised my four-minute mistake was going to cost me $61 a little bit of me did die, but there was nothing left but to do whatever I do when I haven’t had my say: I proceeded to mentally argue with the parking officer in a one-sided internal monologue, where I indignantly got to say everything I wanted to.

‘Come on, I was in there for such a short time, you must have seen me coming in or out.’

‘There were so many spare parks on the road, who was I harming?’

‘I know you’re only doing your job and it must be tricky at times, but how can the people in those shops expect to have customers if there is nowhere easy for them to park?’

‘I really am sorry sir/madam, and clearly I didn’t mean it, can’t you just let me off this time?’

‘No? Thanks for nothing you small-minded, little prat!’

It was funny how quickly I turned from a responsible citizen to one running for the hills so I could start digging my bunker and looking for some alfoil to make me a tin-hat so I could withdraw from society.

I went from respecting and understanding authority, to hating what it stood for, all because of one stupid, mistake I made.

And yes, it was all my own stupid fault, but if you look at recent history, perhaps I have a point?

Why the hell should I pay my fine when we found out just this week that in one month, more than 1500 people deliberately didn’t pay or behaved inappropriately on our buses, trains and trams?

Why the hell should I pay my fine when late last year NSW scrapped 33,000 fines handed out during COVID whilst the rest of us were following the bouncing ball in the name of public health and order?

Why the hell should I pay my fine when actor Vince Colosimo collected over $61,000 of voting and driving fines and didn’t pay them?

(Of course, he did say he had been self-medicating with illicit drugs thanks to depression and undiagnosed ADHD and I only have ‘being in a hurry and making a genuine one-time mistake’ as my defence).

Clearly, these are the internal rantings of someone who deep down understands the ridiculousness of it all, but still, for someone to cop a whack for a ‘victimless’ blunder … well my mistake still smarts.

I fully accept and understand the privilege and benefits associated with living in a structured society and by doing so, I commit to abiding by certain rules and regulations – both written and implied – but is it just me, or does it seem that there are more and more people who aren’t being as civic-minded?

The other day I watched someone throw fast-food wrappers out of the car window, I have walked through the city feeling less than safe after being abused by a woman, and there are dozens of stories around our shopping precincts of security guards and shop owners despairing at the amount of product being pilfered with nothing they can do.

And one can’t help but think it will get worse.

In anger it’s easy to focus on any revenue-raising motive and forget that fines can be a proportional deterrent, but given the rising pressure on our cost of living, it’s easy to see that soon these same penalties will become much more of an out-of-proportion burden on those who cop them.

In the end, I know the vast majority of us are doing the ‘right’ thing and it’s the squeaky wheels that are getting all the internet attention, so I’ll pay up like the good little citizen I am.

After all, I got my electricity bill the other day, so I clearly have much, MUCH bigger fish to fry.

Ali Clarke presents the breakfast show on Mix 102.3. She is a regular columnist for InDaily.